Armored vehicles may include a rotatable turret and a weapon mounted to the turret for use in military operations. To assist a turret operator in rotating the turret, a controlled turret drive system may be installed in the armored vehicle. The turret drive system may include a motor that drives rotation of the turret. The drive system may be configured to provide 360° of turret rotation independent of the vehicle body. The drive system may also include a turret power source that is independent of the vehicle power source and that provides the power to the motor when driving rotation of the vehicle turret.
In some situations, turret operators may desire to equip the vehicle turret with electronic accessory equipment such as, for example, lights, weapon sights, radios, fans, etc. Currently, however, turret operators have limited options to provide power to these electronic accessories. Typically, non-renewable energy sources are used.
Because the turret may rotate 360° independent of the vehicle body, any power cables that pass through the turret hatch into the vehicle body in order to access the vehicle power source can get wrapped up with the turret operator as the turret rotates. Moreover, the vehicle power source may be completely allocated to electronics within the vehicle cabin. As a result, the vehicle power source may not be available to provide power to additional electronic devices that were not part of the original power allocation scheme for the vehicle power source.
Additionally, some turret operators may presently attach the electronic accessory devices directly to the turret power source (e.g., turret batteries). This approach, however, can be hazardous as the power received from the turret power source is not properly regulated or protected in these situations. Furthermore, when electronic accessory devices are directly attached to the turret power source, the electronic accessory devices may quickly drain the turret power source or cause a misbalance in the power supply of the turret power source. Unbalancing the turret batteries may result in premature failure of the turret batteries. As a result, the turret power source may not be able to provide enough power to drive rotation of the turret when operating the turret drive system.
Therefore, a need exists for a new approach to providing power to electronic accessory devices at vehicle turrets.